chickinthekitchen.com

Cauliflower Kugel

April 26, 2008

My fellow cook and commenter Sarah is the wife of J.’s grandpa’s sister’s son’s son. Or, if it’s easier, she’s the daughter-in-law of my grandpa-in-law’s nephew’s son. Got that? Good. Regardless of how we’re releated, Sarah has sent me a number of recipes her family loves and I could not, of course, resist this one because it features my beloved cauliflower. (She knows my weakness!)

The ingredients in this kugel are the mainstays of many Passover dishes — sauteed onion + matzah meal + eggs + N = kugel, where N = any vegetable you’d like, or a mix of several.

To me, this is a very haimish dish. On any other day I’d just roast some cauliflower. On Passover, a savory kugel like this one is the kind of side dish I look forward to on our seder table.

Sarah’s original recipe calls for a chicken bouillon cube to be sauteed with the onions. I didn’t have one on hand, so I skipped it. It was still very flavorful.

Cauliflower Kugel
Adapted from Sarah’s Cauliflower Souffle

1 cauliflower, trimmed and cut into florets
1 large onion
olive oil
2 eggs
1/2 c. matzah meal
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400° F.

Add cauliflower florets to a large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil, and simmer until cauliflower is fork-tender, about 8-10 minutes. Drain.

While cauliflower is cooking, chop onion and saute in a drizzle of olive oil until golden brown and soft.

In the same pot in which it was cooked, mash cauliflower with a fork until all the larger lumps are broken down. Add cooked onions, eggs, matzah meal, and salt and pepper and mix to combine.

Spoon mixture into an 8×8 baking tin, and bake for about 30 minutes, until the top is nicely browned.

Filed under: Holidays,Veggie Mains,Veggie Sides